Tampa Bay Lightning to open training camp on Wednesday with Bruins sensational star goalie set to join them
It’s here. Summer is officially over as the Tampa Bay Lightning return to the ice tomorrow for the 2024-25 season. Okay, technically they won’t take to the ice until Thursday, but training camp opens with media day at 9:00 AM tomorrow. While we won’t be there to ask any questions, we can assume that much of the day will be spent talking about a player who isn’t there – Steven Stamkos.
For most of the players, this will be the media’s first chance to ask about what happened in free agency and what their thoughts are about the first training camp since 2008-09 without The Captain. There will also be an update on medical conditions. As far as we know, there shouldn’t be any major recoveries for the players that are fighting for spots.
Jake Guentzel, Zemgus Girgensons, JJ Moser, Conor Geekie, and Cam Atkinson will be introduced as the off-season acquisitions. Jesse Ylonen and Lukas Svejkovsky will field questions about playing in the same city as their fathers. Someone will be “in the best shape of their lives”. All of the players will speak about their goals (making the playoffs) and once they accomplish that then anything is possible.
It’s going to be a pretty big camp by Lightning standards with 59 players starting out. Those numbers will be trimmed down pretty quickly, starting with the junior eligible players. Since training camps have started for most of the CHL, those players will head out first. The Crunch will likely open their camp the first week of October and that’s when the major cuts will happen.
There aren’t any surprises on the invite list. While Jace Weir and Kyle Chyzowski were on the initial roster, the two invitees were released from the roster on Tuesday.
The coaching staff will have a few days to figure out how they’re going to set up the lines for the first pre-season game which takes place against Carolina on Tuesday September 24th. Here is the full schedule for the camp:
Goaltender Brandon Halverson, who was selected by the New York Rangers two rounds before Igor Shesterkin in the 2014 NHL Draft but hasn’t played in the League since his lone appearance with them in 2018, is one of six goalies at training camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning as he works toward a hoped-for NHL return.
The 28-year-old native of Traverse City, Michigan, was the Rangers’ first pick (second round, No. 59 overall) in 2014 and turned pro in 2016-17 after twice playing for the United States at the World Junior Championship, winning a bronze medal in 2016. Shesterkin was taken in the fourth round (No. 118) that year, but the Moscow native remained in his home country and became a star in the KHL until he signed with the Rangers on May 3, 2019, and arrived in North America for the 2019-20 season.
